INT: Vera Farmiga

Get
ready to see a lot of Vera Farmiga.No,
Im not referring to the short-lived online RUNNING
SCARED game
that featured an animated version of Paul Walkers character from
going downtown on her character (it replicates a scene from the
film).Rather, Im referring
to the pair of films shell be in featuring Oscar-winning
filmmakers: THE
DEPARTED, directed by Martin Scorsese and BREAKING
AND ENTERING, written and directed by Anthony Minghella.Both roles came as a result of her acclaimed performance in
the independent film DOWN TO THE BONE.In the meantime, check Vera out in RUNNING SCARED, opening
today.I got a chance to talk
with her last week.

Vera
Farmiga

What
was your reaction when you first saw the script for Running Scared?

I
was weirded out by it. I thought it was so bizarre and so
wonderfully odd. I had a very extreme emotional response to it,
which I love. I couldn't decide if I hated it or I loved it. I
couldn't. I knew I was definitely disturbed by it. It was gripping.
I know that when you read it pretty quickly you know that
something's there. And, to be honest with you, I thought it was so
imaginative in a sort of weird fairy tale way. It's an adult fairy
tale, yet told through the perspective of a child and I found that
interesting. And I thought it was bold and I thought it was risky. Im
attracted to risky things and I was interested to see what
[director] Wayne [Kramer] would come up with next after The Cooler.

**
Minor
Spoilers **

The
scene involving you and the child molesters was pretty intense.

That
was the pivotal scene for me, I guess. I read that and I thought,
Oh God, whats that about?What if I was in that situation? At first when I read it
and I thought it was a victorious moment and then I think about it
more and you think, What would Buddha do?(laughs)Seriously,
is that the way to go? Is that vengeance or justice? Is that a way
to go about doing things? We're confronted with evil, on much
smaller level, every day and it's so easy for us to try to tip-toe
away and sort of be apathetic about it all. Is that a good or bad
thing, what she does? I find that moral complexity riveting. It's
incredible, that scene we shot in one Steadicam shot from the moment
she knocks on the door to when she makes her choice.

What
about when you performed CPR with one hand?That was impressive.

No,
it's most terrifying, because Wayne had asked at this point he's
like this whole thing about her being the moral ballast of the film
and shes after her husband and her son all the time about their
cursing and this and that and, of course, push comes to shove, all
those rules and regulations go out the window. And Wayne's like,
Just scream every profanity you can. And so I'm trying to
think of all the curse words I could think of and beat with one hand
and who knows what came out at that moment.

Was
that the scene that made you want to do the character?

Absolutely.
Absolutely it was that scene.

**
End of Minor
Spoilers **

Do
you get a lot of scripts that are just for the dutiful wife, without
pivotal scenes like that?

You
know, I don't know. I mean, honestly, as an actor, I mean, yes,
there are a lot of roles like that. But listen, I think it's also
our duty as actresses to flesh these characters out. It sucks,
because it's seldom on the written page, but it's also what you
bring to it. Dutiful wife  I don't complain about that. The wives
that I know in my life are pretty incredible women and they're not
just wives and mothers. They're wives
and theyre mothers.

Given
the intensity of the film, what was the mood like on set?

Because
of that fanciful, whimsical, comical, colorful quality to it, it's
slightly larger than life, there was always this sense of this fairy
tale. Yes, it's brutal, it's harsh this film, but also the team
players were fun. There was no ego, so that's always a good
ingredient.

With
all of that wild stuff happening on set, what does the presence of
the kids do?

That
was tricky. Wayne's not gonna cast a bunch of 16-year-olds playing
10-year-olds. He's gonna cast 10-year-olds. And what happens
inevitably is that the film is this sort of rite of passage for
these two kids and the loss of innocence and inevitably it became
that for the kids, but with as much tenderness and respect. And
they're both very bright and mature for their ages.

What
about working with Paul Walker?

It
was great. It was great. It's just simply great. He's pure sunshine
on the set, pure sunshine. And he's so relaxed and he is who he is.
And he's I think he hasn't been... It's very exciting to see him
finally have something to play and when he gets that, he's very
inventive and it was good times. It was pure good times with him.

Would
you move out here?

No.
I don't need to. There's no need for me to be here. I like for my
films and my characters, not to speak for itself, it always has. I
like where I live. You know, I'm a country girl at heart and I don't
know. I'm content, so why? It works, if it ain't broke, don't fix
it.

How
stunned were you to get the LA Film Critics Award?

Beyond
belief. Beyond belief. You know, I wanted people to see it. I wanted
lay-audiences to see that film. There's such a dearth of female
filmmakers and Debra [Granik], I've always wanted to champion her.
My performance in that movie is the result of her tenets and her
principals and her integrity as a filmmaker. That happened, that
award happened because of Debra and that movie happened. And she
trusted me with it. She could have easily gone to one of the 10
girls that can sell a movie, but she chose to go with the road less
traveled.Its, funny,
this town.It's a
business. In the end it's a business. But it was nice to get.

Does
that help your career now?

I
think people were really bewildered by it. I think studio execs that
had spent a lot of money on campaigns for their actresses.I think it confused a lot of people because not many people
heard about it, even though for years, it seems like...we used to
refer to it as Our Old Bone. Debra would call with news
periodically some festival accolade or something and refer to it as
Our Old Bone or Boner. It was Boner because this
little film keeps resurrecting itself. (laughs) Every film
thereafter was really a...Wayne cast me because he had seen Down to
the Bone. He was also vaguely familiar with my work auditioning for
The Cooler. Scorsese, too. Minghella. Everyone.

With
the success of Departed and Breaking and Entering this year, do you
feel on the brink of something?

I
keep getting asked that question. No, Im so sober about that. I
really have a sober attitude about that. I've just been steadily
working for a long time. I've always steadily worked with very
interesting people and directors, always, and scene partners and it
hasn't really changed, it's just the movies are probably they're
going to be slightly more visible. I don't know. I live in Upstate
New York, you know?I
don't know.

What
was it like working with Scorsese?

Fantastic.Hes incredible.After
how many years hes been making films, and hes still so curious
about people, curious about what makes them tick.He loves people, and its infectious. He loves his actors
that portray these characters. This is his film's signature. What do
you remember about any Scorsese film? You remember the characters,
not so much the plot. I don't. But his characters. It's a luxurious
process. When you're with Marty you get six months and an extremely
high budget.

What
was the difference working with Anthony Minghella?

You
know, their intense is very similar and their integrity is the same.
There's just a minor personality differences, but it's still the
same type, the same breed of director, it really is, except that
Anthony had written his own script and that's always different, when
you have a writer/director as opposed to a director/translator.

Were
they checking up on how the other was working?

No.
They were very discrete about that. I don't know. Maybe it was
slightly competitive, I don't know.